Watchdog Agencies Don't Need Overseer

If the state's watchdog agencies really had to be mashed together into one superagency called the Office of Governmental Accountability, then Shelby Brown of East Hartford seems a great pick to be its executive administrator.

The problem is that her position needn't exist. She's very qualified — perhaps overqualified — for a job that shouldn't have to be done.

Ms. Brown was chosen by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy at the end of the year to oversee the provision of "back-office" support for such important but now diminished watchdogs as the Freedom of Information Commission, the Office of State Ethics and the State Election Enforcement Commission. The appointment still has to be confirmed by the legislature.

Mr. Malloy's ham-handed consolidation of the watchdogs three years ago hasn't saved much money, but it has stripped the agencies of needed expertise and made them less effective. The governor even proposed to take away their budget authority but was stopped by the legislature.

The leaders of the nine agencies within the Office of Governmental Accountability — which also includes the Board of Firearms Permit Examiners, the Judicial Review Council, the Judicial Selection Commission, the Office of the Child Advocate, the Office of the Victim Advocate and the State Contracting Standards Board — fought a succession of turf battles with the Office of Governmental Accountability's first executive administrator, David Guay. He refused to acknowledge their authority to evaluate his job performance. He is now executive director of the contracting standards board.

Enter the very qualified — perhaps overqualified — Ms. Brown, who not only has a terrific resume but, in a recent email interview with The Courant's Jon Lender, hit notes that should be music to the ears of the independence-minded watchdogs.

"Each of the directors is responsible for a unique function of public oversight, which requires a wide degree of independence," she said.

We agree. These uniquely different agencies should be independent of one another, not working in the same silo. They don't need governor-appointed overseers with six-figure salaries to ensure that they fulfill their missions.